2024 NASCAR Discussion ThreadNASCAR

[Blood Eagle]

Weather situation for this weekend. NASCAR is officially back.

I’m going to the Clash. I’ll let you know how it is.

 

[Dylan]

‼️‼️CLASH IS TONIGHT‼️‼️

 

[Blood Eagle]

I’m going to the Clash. I’ll let you know how it is.

So now that they are going to run it tonight I am not going. I had a hotel that I was supposed to check in tomorrow, go to the race, back to the hotel after and go home Monday morning. I’m out $500 and the 10,000 fan rewards points I redeemed for tickets. Thanks NASCAR! Too short notice. Should have moved up the start time tomorrow.

 

[Dennisch]

Good to see that the weather gods followed Nascar into 2024. A promising start to the season.

 

[Blood Eagle]

Good to see that the weather gods followed Nascar into 2024. A promising start to the season.

TBF is is the rainy season in California and it’s been a thing for a while. This was not a random unpredicted storm.

 

[Blitz24]

Hamlin on the pole, Blaney starts 23rd. Bell and Buescher miss the race.

 

[Dylan]

Denny Hamlin starts off the year with a win in the Clash!

 

[Eggstor]

The entry list for the Daytona 500 is out, and NY Racing is on it, with TBA as both the driver and crew chief. They do, however, have a sponsor - 100 Coconut Water.

Edit - The reason the driver is TBA is BK...er...NY Racing didn't pay Greg Biffle for his 2022 runs with the team.

 

[Dylan]

 

[Blitz24]

The entry list for the Daytona 500 is out, and NY Racing is on it, with TBA as both the driver and crew chief. They do, however, have a sponsor - 100 Coconut Water.

Edit - The reason the driver is TBA is BK...er...NY Racing didn't pay Greg Biffle for his 2022 runs with the team.

Ah, that's always a good thing to hear. This group has bounced around for years IIRC. They owned the car involved in the accident that ended Bobby Allison's career.

 

[Eggstor]

NY Racing did show up, but there weren't haulers for either the 36 or 60 in the Cup hauler parade last night. One of those two is probably using an extra Joey Gase
Xfinity hauler as that got mixed in with the Cup haulers.

Edit - It's Front Row that's using the Joey Gase hauler - it was parked next to the other two Front Row haulers, while the 60 snuck in like a submarine.

Edit part 2 - Per Jayski, NY Racing found a driver - JJ Yeley (late of the Rick Ware Racing part-time stable).

 

[Blitz24]

Anthony Alfredo has locked himself into the Daytona 500. A bit anticlimactic as Kaz Grala fails to record a qualifying lap.

David Ragan qualifies for the Daytona 500. Jimmie Johnson, BJ McLeod, JJ Yeley and Kaz Grala will be the 4 cars competing for 2 spots tomorrow.

 

[Eggstor]

David Ragan is the other open lock-in. Jimmie Johnson missed by 0.123 seconds, though he was faster than his teammate John Hunter Nemechek.

Moving on to front row contention:

Logano
Larson
Dillon
Byron
Elliott
McDowell
Cindric
Busch
Chastain
Burton

Riley Herbst just missed out on RWR's first final round qualifying effort, qualifying 12th.

Lineups for the Duels starting with 6th:

Duel 1:
Gilliland
Preece
Buescher
Bowman
Suarez
Alfredo (open team, locked in on time, but can improve Daytona 500 starting position by being the highest-finishing open driver)
Jones
Hemric
Truex
Gibbs
Stenhouse
LaJoie
Johnson (open team, can lock in on time if Alfredo or Ragan is the highest-finishing open driver in their respective Duels)
Reddick
Hocevar
Yeley (open team, must be the top-finishing open driver in Duel 1)

Duel 2:
Herbst
Briscoe
Gragson
Blaney
Allmendinger
Berry
Keselowski
Ragan (open team, locked in on time, but can improve Daytona 500 starting position by being the highest-finishing open driver)
Wallace
Haley
Bell
Hamlin
Smith
Nemechek
McLeod (open team, can lock in on time if Alfredo and Ragan are the highest-finishing open drivers in their respective Duels)
Grala (open team, must be the top-finishing open driver in Duel 2)

 

[Dylan]

Joey Logano wins the pole for the Daytona 500! Michael McDowell will join him on the front row.

 

[Eggstor]

Top 5 for Duel 1:
Logano
Larson
Elliott
Dillon
Chastain

Top 5 for Duel 2:
McDowell
Cindric
Byron
Busch
Burton

The rest of the Duels lineups is above.

 

[Blitz24]

I will be stunned if the 500 is run on Sunday.

 

[Eggstor]

I will be stunned if the 500 is run on Sunday.

Prediction - Xfinity/Cup doubleheader on Monday as the National Association of Storm Clouds and Auto Racing busts yet another drought.

 

[Eggstor]

The Toyotas are looking rather racy early in the first Duel.

The first caution in the first Duel in a few years as, post-pitstops the field accordioned as its 3 parts were catching each other, and Johnson got a relatively-big piece.

Back to green, 6 to go - Yeley 13th, Johnson 17th

2 to go - Yeley and Johnson side-by-side

Reddick wins, Yeley stupidly made it 3-wide, so Johnson got by and got into the Daytona 500.

 

[LumpiestFish]

Yeley was fighting pretty dirty for that final spot

 

[Blitz24]

The Toyotas are looking rather racy early in the first Duel.

The first caution in the first Duel in a few years as, post-pitstops the field accordioned as its 3 parts were catching each other, and Johnson got a relatively-big piece.

Back to green, 6 to go - Yeley 13th, Johnson 17th

2 to go - Yeley and Johnson side-by-side

Reddick wins, Yeley stupidly made it 3-wide, so Johnson got by and got into the Daytona 500.

Yeley was screwed either way. If he stayed low, he would have ran into the back of the car ahead of him.

 

[Eggstor]

Inside row for the Daytona 500:
Logano (finished 7th, so he does get 3 championship points)
Reddick
Elliott
Bowman
Hocevar
Jones
Suarez
Gibbs
Larson
Buescher
Chastain
Johnson
Preece
Truex
LaJoie
Gilliland
Dillon
Stenhouse
Hemrick
Alfredo (falls back on his qualifying time, finished 19th)

Going home:
Yeley (finished 16th)

And now we have the Ford Duel

 

[Dylan]

Heartbreak for Yeley. He gave a good fight.

 

[Eggstor]

Field fillers doing well near the halfway point - Herbst 3rd, Smith 4th, McLeod 6th and well ahead of the other 2 go-or-go-homers (who keep swapping 20th/21st).

That Liberty picture-in-picture commercial, specifically its yellow background, had me worried they went to yellow.

McLeod shuffled all the way back.

Smith too fast on pit road.

Grala lost the draft. Hamlin gained 15 spots on the pit stop exchange, 2nd behind McDowell.

Big one, Blaney and Busch on fire, Herbst also out, and damage on McLeod.

Red flag. I missed the list of cars, but it was 10.

10 to go, 16 cars still running (assuming they didn't get the 4 running), Grala in the race-in spot in 7th with McLeod 13th.

Hamlin with a real late block going into the tri-oval, McDowell shuffled to the back.

Now they're 3-wide behind Hamlin. 2 to go. McLeod really fighting back.

Bell with the win, Grala is in.

 

[Dylan]

Another awesome battle for the transfer spot for the open cars. Elation for Kaz Grala. And heartbreak for McLeod.

 

[Eggstor]

Outside row of the Daytona 500:
McDowell (finished 16th, last car running)
Bell
Cindric
Hamlin
Nemechek
Burton
Smith
Keselowski
Byron
Briscoe
Haley
Wallace
Grala
Allmendinger
Berry (out)
Blaney (out, crashed)
Busch (out, crashed)
Herbst (out, crashed)
Gragson (out, crashed)
Ragan (finished 15th, in on time)

Going home:
McLeod (finished 14th)

 

[Dylan]

That was probably the best set of Duel races we’ve had in recent memory.

 

[Blitz24]

Karma is somewhere when the current driver of the 48 indirectly is the reason that the former driver of the 48 made the Daytona 500.

 

[Blitz24]

ARCA race has been pushed up to tonight at 10:30 PM. I assume they are wishfully thinking the Truck Series will not go long.

 

[Dolph Drago]

I just finished watching the second duel race. So glad to see Blaney was okay after that nasty hit. A heartbreaker for McLeod. And I thought for sure Hamlin was going to win when they started dicing behind him with 2 to go. Note to drivers: if you throw a late block, it won't end well.

 

[Northstar]

They managed to get Xfinity qualifying in but it seems like their luck only went that far.